Disney’s Pixar animated movies are experiencing a decline in popularity, with their original titles failing to score big at the box office. The studio recently released its latest feature film, Elio, in theaters. The sci-fi adventure movie garnered positive reviews from critics, resulting in a strong Rotten Tomatoes score.

However, the critical success did not translate to box office success, which is quickly becoming a sad trend for Pixar movies. As a result, Elio‘s middling box office numbers suggest that original Pixar movies are bound to struggle to draw large numbers. Here’s why that might be bad news for cinema.

Pixar’s latest animated movie to hit the big screens is Elio, a heartfelt tale of an eleven-year-old boy who accidentally becomes the intergalactic ambassador of planet Earth and must face the warlord father of his new alien friend.

It is based on an original story initially developed by Adrian Molina and features the voices of Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldaña, and Brad Garrett. The film received positive reviews upon release and currently holds an impressive critics’ score of 84% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Despite its strong critical reception, the film is performing below par for a Pixar movie at the box office. According to reports, Elio has a massive budget of $150 million behind it, but has only managed to gross $35 million in its opening weekend (via The Numbers).

Therefore, it is safe to say that despite a strong Rotten Tomatoes score, Elio has failed to score big at the box office. In the process, the movie has all but confirmed the sad trend of original Pixar animated movies struggling at the box office since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Elio seems to be continuing Pixar’s worst trend as the studio’s original titles since the pandemic have delivered disappointing box office numbers. However, what is more disappointing is that there doesn’t seem to be a drop in the quality of Pixar’s movies.

The Rotten Tomatoes scores for Pixar’s recent original titles tell an entirely different story. Like Elio, Pixar’s latest original animated movie, Elemental, also had positive reviews but only managed to rake in $29.5 million at the box office during its opening weekend (via Reuters).

Although Elemental emerged as a sleeper hit, a similar trend can be seen with Pixar’s other recent movies. Onward was the last theatrically released Pixar movie before the pandemic, which still underperformed at the box office.

Meanwhile, movies like Soul, Luca, and Turning Red received critical acclaim, including Oscar nods. However, they were dropped directly on streaming before post-pandemic theatrical releases in 2024.

Onward (2020)	88%	$142 million
Soul (2020)	95%	$122.2 million
Luca (2021)	91%	$51.1 million
Turning Red (2022)	95%	$21.5 million
Lightyear (2022)	74%	$226.4 million
Elemental (2023)	73%	$496.4 million

By the time Pixar returned to the big screen with Lightyear in 2022, it was met with box office disappointment despite strong ties to the Toy Story franchise. As a result, industry insiders commented on Pixar’s failure to score big at the box office with original titles (via Variety).

The downward trend in original Pixar movies and their box office potential is evident post-pandemic, especially since Disney used them to bolster its streaming service. As a result, Pixar’s box office struggles are bad news for cinema because the studio is one of the few attempting original stories.